I followed the hype: Reddit, Slashdot's front page, months of thumbs up on my blog and various video forums by Linux users for OpenShot. Given that I'm longing for a usable Linux video editor since 2003, and given that OpenShot version 1.0 had just been released, I naturally gave it a go, by also downloading its provided dependencies on my Ubuntu Linux 9.10.

First and foremost, OpenShot uses MLT, which is basically the KDEnlive engine/backend (in crude terms, bear with me here). MLT/KDEnlive have existed, if I am correct, since 2002. OpenShot seems to be "just" piggybacking on the KDEnlive project. Writing a frontend for video editing in a year is possible, but writing a complete frontend + engine/framework/backend in a year? No way in hell.

I can't imagine how deeply annoying it must be to other video editing projects to see OpenShot arrive on the block, reuse the engine of an existing project and basically clone it in PyGTK "cause KDE/QT stinks and stains my pure GNOME environment" (note: I actually a GNOME user/fan, and this quote is a satyre of the mentality I see around the project's users) and then subtly let users believe (through hype and insufficient clarifications) that the whole thing was written from scratch in a year. Urgh.

Second point: while Jonathan is the primary figure on the project, as far as I know (I could be wrong), he is far from being alone working on the project.